Hales

Sunday after church. They commented that church wasn't the cookie cutter meeting.

 We see this building on our way to the Cross.  The architecture is great. 

 Tate wanted his picture taken.  These stairs lead down to the Cross. 

 This is to the right of the Cross. We think it is beautiful with the fields. The sky was so interesting.  We get kind of use to blue skies without clouds. 

 Nash was not wanting his picture taken. 

 This is at Ventura Harbor. 

The plan was to meet Jared's aunt and uncle at Andreas.  A restaurant at the harbor.  It was closed.  We ended up eating Mexican at Margarita Villa. With the recommendation of Andreas being good,  we will go back. 

Here is a mosaic of an otter. Whenever I see mosaics I think of my mom.

We had to do the Marina Bay park. 

Nash had the biggest expression.  I figured to take his picture,  he can't know about it. Then it works. 

The tide was so far out. The kids loved playing on the beach and in the water.  But no one more than Nash. The way Jared got him to get out of the ocean was to say we were going to go get ice cream.
His thermostat is definitely different than Ama's.

Annie is designing her mermaid trail. 

Tate needed to help out with the tail. 

I thought this was funny that the adults were all looking at their phones.  In defense for Shelby,  she was looking at her pictures as she needed to make more room.

As the tide was going back, waves were coming in which caused the different ripples. 

We were intrigued. 

Annie and Ama found these pelicans. 

The thought came that it would be neat to have the Hales help plant a flower. When they come visit they can see how much it's grown. 

Thanksgiving

In preparing a lot of the food for dinner on Thanksgiving,  I did it on Wednesday so we could spend time with the Felixes Thursday morning. 

It was great going to the beach in the morning.  We got back and cleaned up. Travis did the mashed potatoes and Liz made the fruit salad. 

 President Felix sent an email out to the Ventura Spanish speaking missionaries inviting any who did not have a dinner invitation on Thanksgiving to come to the mission home for dinner.  They were to let us know the Sunday before.  Sunday morning we knew Felixes and the three Assistants were going to be to dinner.  Sunday night we heard from 11 others.  We went back to the store Monday to buy more food. 

 We did something new this year. I made gratitude rolls.  Questions or statements regarding gratitude were typed on strips of paper and wrapped in foil then rolled up in the dough and baked. We all found our foil and set it aside until after eating and then we went around the table and shared. 

Because Liz slipped me Maren's mine said Why are you grateful for your companion?

We would not be on this mission. We are where we are because of him. Because of him we have 5 wonderful children,  5 great in laws and 12 grandkids.  I didn't say too much at dinner but now I would like to share:

Dell is amazing! I am grateful for the wonderful husband he is and how he treats me. There are many times I wonder how I was so lucky to get him.

I am thankful we are best friends and that others can tell we love each other.  

President Eyring counseled us to be good examples to the missionaries in showing a good example of a happy married couple.  I'm grateful that isn't hard for us to do.

We are so blessed! 

 Elder James brought ghost peppers and the Assistants took on the challenge of eating them. I love that they're smiling now. 

 I think they are thinking "what have I done? "

 Elder Wallace ran into the house and took a spoon full of cool whip thinking that would help.  Travis told them to have milk and also limes would help if they sucked on them.  Fortunately we had both. 

Can you see Elder Lee's face is red? Elder Bryson who is not shown was so calm and had a tear running down his face.  I've not laughed this hard for months, in fact it was pre mission.  It was great. 

We loved sitting around singing hymns.

Another gratitude thing is the beautiful sunset as we looked off the deck.  The sliver of the moon is D's favorite.
GRATITUDE
"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." President Thomas S. Monson

Felixes

I am a bit slow in blogging regarding the wonderful time we had with Travis,  Liz,  and Maren. It feels like it's been so long since we've seen them. We were looking forward to seeing Liz's  baby bump. 

 The Felixes arrived Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  We were so excited to see them. 

 Maren helped Ama make rolls. 

 Liz and Maren had fun playing before we went outside. 

 Maren enjoyed the back area where she could pick fruit and flowers. 

 This beach area is so fun.

 Maren would scream as she ran from the waves. I think she could have done it all day but we had to get back to finish up the fixings for dinner. 

The zip line is fun but can be quite the work out for the adult helping. 

 We had to show them the Cross.  This  is where we take the new missionaries after arriving in the mission. 

  We were glad we could show them the mission office. I think the highlight was seeing the transfer board. 

We saw Big Hero 6.

It was hard to see them leave Saturday night. They drove through the night to get back

 to Salt Lake. So grateful when we received the text that they were home.